iPhone — How to find topmost view controller

Question

I've run into a couple of cases now where it would be convenient to be able to find the "topmost" view controller (the one responsible for the current view), but haven't found a way to do it.

Basically the challenge is this: Given that one is executing in a class that is not a view controller (or a view) [and does not have the address of an active view] and has not been passed the address of the topmost view controller (or, say, the address of the navigation controller), is it possible to find that view controller? (And, if so, how?)

Or, failing that, is it possible to find the topmost view?

Answer 1

A complete non-recursive version, taking care of different scenarios:

• The view controller is presenting another view
• The view controller is a UINavigationController
• The view controller is a UITabBarController

Objective-C

 UIViewController *topViewController = self.window.rootViewController;
 while (true)
 {
     if (topViewController.presentedViewController) {
         topViewController = topViewController.presentedViewController;
     } else if ([topViewController isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
         UINavigationController *nav = (UINavigationController *)topViewController;
         topViewController = nav.topViewController;
     } else if ([topViewController isKindOfClass:[UITabBarController class]]) {
         UITabBarController *tab = (UITabBarController *)topViewController;
         topViewController = tab.selectedViewController;
     } else {
         break;
     }
 }

Swift 4+

extension UIWindow {
    func topViewController() -> UIViewController? {
        var top = self.rootViewController
        while true {
            if let presented = top?.presentedViewController {
                top = presented
            } else if let nav = top as? UINavigationController {
                top = nav.visibleViewController
            } else if let tab = top as? UITabBarController {
                top = tab.selectedViewController
            } else {
                break
            }
        }
        return top
    }
}

Answer 2

Expanding on @Eric's answer, you need to be careful that the keyWindow is actually the window you want. If you are trying to utilize this method after tapping something in an alert view for example, the keyWindow will actually be the alert's window, and that will cause problems for you no doubt. This happened to me in the wild when handling deep links via an alert and caused SIGABRTs with NO STACK TRACE. Total bitch to debug.

Here's the code I'm using now:

- (UIViewController *)getTopMostViewController {
    UIWindow *topWindow = [UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow;
    if (topWindow.windowLevel != UIWindowLevelNormal) {
        NSArray *windows = [UIApplication sharedApplication].windows;
        for(topWindow in windows)
        {
            if (topWindow.windowLevel == UIWindowLevelNormal)
                break;
        }
    }

    UIViewController *topViewController = topWindow.rootViewController;

    while (topViewController.presentedViewController) {
        topViewController = topViewController.presentedViewController;
    }

    return topViewController;
}

Feel free to mix this with whatever flavor of retrieving the top view controller you like from the other answers on this question.

Answer 3

Alternative Swift solution:

static func topMostController() -> UIViewController {
    var topController = UIApplication.sharedApplication().keyWindow?.rootViewController
    while (topController?.presentedViewController != nil) {
        topController = topController?.presentedViewController
    }

    return topController!
}

Answer 4

Not sure if this will help what you're trying to accomplish by finding the topmost view controller, but I was trying to present a new view controller, but if my root view controller already had a modal dialog, it would be blocked, so I would cycle to the top of all modal view controllers using this code:

UIViewController* parentController =[UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController;

while( parentController.presentedViewController &&
       parentController != parentController.presentedViewController )
{
    parentController = parentController.presentedViewController;
}

Answer 5

Below two function can help to find the topViewController on Stack of view controllers. You may need customization later, but for this code is awesome to understand the concept of topViewController or stack of viewControllers.

- (UIViewController*)findTopViewController {

  id  topControler  = [self topMostController];

  UIViewController* topViewController;
  if([topControler isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
        topViewController = [[(UINavigationController*)topControler viewControllers] lastObject];
   } else if ([topControler isKindOfClass:[UITabBarController class]]) {
        //Here you can get reference of top viewcontroller from stack of viewcontrollers on UITabBarController
  } else {
        //topController is a preented viewController
        topViewController = (UIViewController*)topControler;
  }
    //NSLog(@"Top ViewController is: %@",NSStringFromClass([topController class]));
    return topViewController;
}

- (UIViewController*)topMostController
{
    UIViewController *topController = [UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController;

    while (topController.presentedViewController) {
        topController = topController.presentedViewController;
    }
    //NSLog(@"Top View is: %@",NSStringFromClass([topController class]));
    return topController;
}

You can use [viewController Class] method to find out the type of class of a viewController.

Answer 6

Yet another Swift solution

func topController() -> UIViewController? {

    // recursive follow
    func follow(from:UIViewController?) -> UIViewController? {
        if let to = (from as? UITabBarController)?.selectedViewController {
            return follow(to)
        } else if let to = (from as? UINavigationController)?.visibleViewController {
            return follow(to)
        } else if let to = from?.presentedViewController {
            return follow(to)
        }
        return from
    }

    let root = UIApplication.sharedApplication().keyWindow?.rootViewController

    return follow(root)

}